Tesla's broke. Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, is broke. Now Musk is traveling the country, hat in hand, begging for cash in a series of secret, closed-door meetings. One unimpressed insider shared this exclusive, behind-the-scenes look with us.

Tesla Motors filed paperwork Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering hoping to raise as much as $100 million. Oh, good, because they lost $31.5 million in the first nine months of 2009.